I'm looking ahead 6-8 years, but practice transitions often take a long time.

The traditional option of going full bore and walking out the door at an early age has lost some of its luster for me with the current health insurance situation.

Option B is to start cutting back on the schedule in my late 50s so that I'm down to a couple days per week by my early 60s. Hang on with a limited schedule until 65 when Medicare, etc are available. Even if the income wasn't huge, I wouldn't be drawing down my retirement savings for those interim years so the math works out more favorably.

Any insight from those in a similar situation?

Thanks!

Yes you can do that. You didn't mention what exact profession you're in, but a lot of times I've seen doctors and lawyers take on a young partner or two,grow the business while going down to 2-4 days a week working and in the end sell the business to the partner.

I've also seen in the very same situation, some people go down to 2-3 days a week and after a year or two get tired of being home more with the wife, or golfing too many days, get bored, and go back to working 5 days a week. LOL

quote:

Originally posted by jimmy123x: You didn't mention what exact profession you're in, but a lot of times I've seen doctors and lawyers take on a young partner or two,grow the business while going down to 2-4 days a week working and in the end sell the business to the partner.

Orthodontist. There will definitely be a transition with a new associate in the last year or two, but not until the very end. I don't have any desire to "grow" the practice at this point. Some colleagues have tried that and ended up working harder just to pay the associate's salary. In the end, the new guy can only afford a certain amount once he drops back to a one man operation, so there isn't as much benefit as it might seem.

I think it depends on what profession, and how feasible it is to taper off.

Maybe by only working a few days a week, you can’t stay current, skilled, etc. in a litigation practice, where your schedule depends on court hearings, trials, etc., it might be pretty tough to work as you want. Doctors who see patients in hospital might have a hard time since sick people are on their schedule, not yours.

My brother, a CPA, has been cutting his client list each year, during tax season. Since I kept him from being eaten by bears as a kid, hopefully he won't cut me.

As an orthodontist I can see you being able to cut your schedule easier than most doctors and lawyers. The simple answer, would be to charge more which would limit the amount of new business you take in, but at least the new business you take in will be paying more and the time you do work should be just as lucrative or possibly more (you still have the same fixed costs obviously).

At least among lawyers, the main plan I've heard, is to stop taking new clients, and refer them to the associate. But lawyers don't seem to "buy" a practice, aside from buying the building - but only familiar w. a few small town lawyers.

It depends on what your exact profession. I know semi retired lawyers. Don’t know many semi retired docs.

My dad was a dentist. He retired but maintained all the necessary permits/licenses/etc. to practice and he did stand-in duty for dentists that were on vacation or (in one case) legally not allowed to practice for a while. He charged them a butt-load to do it and they probably didn't make a dime on the work he did, but it kept their practice going and kept the patients happy.

Eventually his liability/malpractice insurance cost him so much that it became impractical to continue even at the rates he was charging...

Not sure if insurance rates are better now - this was 20 years ago with dad. I'm sure there is a break-even point regarding hours worked vs costs of doing business.

I have a Dentist friend in his early 60s that slowed down to working Monday, Tuesday and Thursdays only a few years ago after having some health issues. He owns the small building he works in outright, and had all of his equipment paid off years ago.

quote:

My brother, a CPA, has been cutting his client list each year, during tax season. Since I kept him from being eaten by bears as a kid, hopefully he won't cut me.

I have found family members to have short memories when it comes to this stuff. Their perception is often different. LOL

quote:

Originally posted by Dusty78:
It depends on what your exact profession. I know semi retired lawyers. Don’t know many semi retired docs.

I know of one, but he was probably an unusual example. He had retired from his main medical practice, and he put in just a couple of days a week as an AME -- Aviation Medical Examiner.

He was a pilot, had been a Navy Flight Surgeon in his younger days, and he went through the FAA's bureaucratic process to get certified as an AME. He kept a small office at the airport for this part-time practice. Just him, no receptionist, no nurse, no billing department, just pay him in cash.

I saw him annually, to renew my aviation medical certificate. He had a "SIG" bumper sticker on his car, we would BS about flying (he was a Bonanza pilot, as I am), SIGs, and life in general, while he ran through the checklist for my flight physical.

He was retired, except for this. His best friend / co-pilot / wife had died, and I think he did this as much for social contact as anything else. He certainly did not earn any significant money doing maybe a dozen or two exams of this type each month.

quote:

Eventually his liability/malpractice insurance cost him so much that it became impractical to continue even at the rates he was charging...

Today, this^^^

RMD

As a professional being semi retired is entirely feasible, if you are self employed. A good friend of mine who is an orthopedist, stopped doing surgery which dropped his malpractice rate greatly. He replaced that with outpatient IMEs, and some contract work.
Physicians I know often transition to contract work such as immigration physicals, disability evaluations and some workers compensation.

I know of very few dentists here locally that work on Fridays.

As far as hospital work is concerned, the majority of the work is done by Hospitalists who are paid by the hospital.

You need to put together a practice group and go into semi-retirement by sitting on its board.

^^^^^

I've only seen that in the case of REALLY big multi-city operations. Building such a practice would take much more time and effort than I care to expend.